NetDoc:
So what do you think OSHA thinks of your business plan??? At $16/hr ($8 for the employee, and $8 for taxes, insurance and the like) your twenty minute fill is costing the owner $5.33 PLUS all the rest of the expenses???
Pete, I think that your straw men are offensive.
First off, as I've pointed out TWICE in this thread (and you've intentionally ignored), along with in the referenced post, there are technological solutions to that problem that don't require ANYONE to attend the tank other than to hook it up and disconnect it. The TASCOM regulators are but one possible solution to that problem. Before you tell me that OSHA disallows that arrangement, you better check with them - such devices are perfectly permissible in filling various bottles; if they weren't then
every scuba shop using a pressure switch to shut off their compressor while refilling their banks would be in violation, and so would every gas supplier - since they all use them too.
Second, that $16/hour you posit (which is grossly high given what I've seen paid around here and in most other places) is the same for ONE or for EIGHT tanks. Indeed, the number of tanks that can be filled at once is only limited by the way the panel and storage is configured. Again, a shop-owner's CHOICE; if they want to fill serially, they can. And indeed, I've yet to see a filling station where the operator NEVER departs the tank during the process.
Third, as I've pointed out, if a small shop was to buy one of these units, they'd be wise to invest in a couple of bank tanks. As I've
also pointed out, the 4500 psi versions are pretty cheap, and the Alkin can fill them to capacity without overheating. Once the bank tanks are filled, of course, you can fast-fill to your hearts content - even if you
are hosing your customers by doing it (you DO know that PSI recommends no more than 600 psi/minute fill rates, right?)
Of course setting up a small (that is, low-volume) shop's air system
intelligently, instead of just buying the $20,000 worth of "stuff" the compressor salesman wants to sell you, requires using a brain.
The compressor salesman's recommendations are good for the guy who's pumping a lot of gas.
Tell me Pete - if my number are so far off, as you allege, how come Fill Express, which sells mostly fills, manages to sell gas at prices that looks suspiciously like my cost + a roughly 20% mark-up - and they're still in business?
I further find it
extremely offensive that the very same persons who crow about "life support" equipment as their argument against
divers being self-sufficient (e.g. as their excuse to refuse to sell repair parts)
also expect us to pay for their lack of intelligence in their purchasing decisions, and then cry when called on it!
You can't have this both ways Pete - either the buyer is intelligent and has a basis for his crowing on the other related issues, or he's not intelligent and now wants his customers to pay for his poor business decisions.
What this argument really comes down to is that for any group of four or more divers who collectively make 100 dives or more a year they'd be well-served to consider buying their OWN compressor between the four of them, unless they have a Fill Express-like shop near them that will cut the BS and stop calling their gas sales a "loss leader" - because it isn't.
If they're not pumping Nitrox then all they need is the base unit - $2500 - it even comes with a dual-orifice whip (will fill both K and DIN valves, with bleed) from the factory.
Then your previous polemic about buying your airfills over the internet can be dispelled as well.
